When I was reading the dialogue Parmenides, Plato explores a profound puzzle about the nature of time. The argument can be understood this way:
Imagine time divided into three parts: the Past, the Present, and the Future.
The Past is what used to exist but no longer does. It is non-existent.
The Future is what is yet to exist but does not exist now. It is also non-existent.
The Present is the only part that is “real,” yet it seems to be just a boundary dividing the non-existent past from the non-existent future.
This raises a question: If the present is only a boundary between two things that do not exist, how thick is it?
It is interesting to think that at some point in the past, time began and continues until it reaches its end in the future.
The point of this paradox is that the present is the only truly existing thing we experience. We spend more time thinking about the future than living the moment—outcome-centric rather than process-centric. Excessive pessimism toward the future affects our decision-making in the present.
The best way to deal with this in a dopamine-driven world—do boring things.
By boring, I mean really boring. I see boredom as an emerging trait for achieving consciousness. When you analyse the past, most major inventions happened in the pre-internet era. There were fewer distractions, leaving people with time to sit with ideas long enough for them to become something.
This year, I’ve decided to devote myself to boredom by trying different formats of art pieces—books, ideas, biographies, manga, research papers, and artworks.
In this essay, I’ve shared a hand-picked set of extraordinary works.
1. Book: No Longer Human
No Longer Human (Ningen Shikkaku) is a 1948 Japanese novel by Osamu Dazai, considered a classic of modern Japanese literature and a semi-autobiographical masterpiece. It was Dazai’s final completed work before his suicide.
I started this book at the beginning of the year because of my interest in philosophy, but it took me more than a month to complete. It was my first semi-autobiography that completely shifted my perspective on life, and it offered a small introduction to Japanese culture in the late 1940s.
The title “No Longer Human” literally translates to “Disqualified from Being Human.”
The novel revolves around profound alienation—the protagonist feels he does not belong to the human species.
The book is structured into three parts:
Prologue – The unnamed narrator describes three disturbing photographs of the protagonist at different ages.
Three Memoranda – Stories of his childhood, adolescence/young adulthood, and adulthood/decline.
Epilogue – Commentary on the protagonist’s life.
The core ideas lie in the three memoranda. The prologue and epilogue are commentary; therefore, I discuss only the memoranda.
Memo 1 — Childhood
The protagonist is born into a wealthy family in northern Japan. From a young age, he is terrified of human beings, unable to interpret motives, emotions, or societal rules.
This memo has three significant parts: Clown, Trauma, and Takeichi.
Clown
To cope with his fear of people, he begins playing the clown. Acting foolish becomes a symbolic shield—if he makes others laugh, they treat him as harmless and never judge his true self.
Trauma
Behind the clown mask, he is miserable. He reveals he was sexually abused by a family servant but never told anyone. He sees this as another incomprehensible aspect of human behaviour that he had to endure silently.
Takeichi
In middle school, he meets Takeichi, a classmate who sees through his clowning and tells him, “You did that on purpose.” Terrified, he befriends Takeichi to prevent him from exposing the act.
Memo 2 — Adolescence & Young Adulthood
The protagonist moves to Tokyo for high school and art school. There he meets a man who introduces him to the “mysteries of city life”—alcohol, pawnshops, and prostitutes. Intoxication becomes his escape from human fear.
He briefly joins a Marxist group—not from belief, but because he finds comfort in outsider status.
Feeling increasingly hopeless, he meets a married waitress, Tsuneko. They bond through shared suffering and attempt suicide twice. Tsuneko dies; the protagonist survives, carrying the burden of her death.
Memo 3 — Adulthood & Decline
This section marks his complete descent. Expelled from university and disowned by his family, he becomes a leech—dependent on various women, drinking heavily, and doing almost no work.
He meets Yoshiko, an innocent young girl whose defining trait is her blind trust. Inspired, he stops drinking and marries her, briefly experiencing simple, peaceful moments.
The breaking incident: one day, a casual acquaintance sexually assaults Yoshiko. Because she is so trusting, she does not understand what is happening until it is too late. This shatters him. The one trait he admired becomes the cause of her ruin. He falls into depression, believing “pure trust is a sin.”
He attempts suicide again but fails, becomes addicted to drugs, and is eventually sent to a mental institution.
He reaches final severance—neither sinner nor madman. He is simply “no longer human.” Society stops seeing him as a person.
The memoir ends with him living in a dilapidated thatched-roof house in the countryside, age 27 but looking over 40, cared for by an old woman. He feels nothing—“Everything passes.”
Epilogue
The unnamed narrator reveals he obtained the notebooks from a bar madam who knew the protagonist. When he comments on how miserable the man’s life seemed, she disagrees. She weeps and says he was kind, considerate: “He was an angel.”
2. Person — Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsch
I’ve always been interested in hard philosophy but never read any. “No Longer Human” left a void in me, and to fill it, I decided to try “Beyond Good and Evil” by Friedrich Nietzsche.
I bought it and gave it a try—blunder.
After two lines, I went blank. I couldn’t understand the sentence. That led me to other materials so I could truly understand his major ideas. I spent the last two months reading about Nietzsche and decided to summarise his early life and core philosophies here.
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844–1900) was a German philosopher, cultural critic, and philologist whose work reshaped Western thought.
His writing style is unique—provocative, sharp, and filled with critiques of traditional religion and morality.
Life and Career
Born in Röcken, Prussia, Nietzsche was the son of a Lutheran minister. He was considered intellectually gifted; at 24, he became a full professor of classical philology at the University of Basel—before completing his doctorate.
Chronic health issues (migraines, vision problems) forced him to resign in 1879. He spent the next years travelling across Switzerland, Italy, and France, living in modest boarding houses and writing his most important works.
At 44, he suffered a mental collapse in Turin and spent the last 11 years of his life in a catatonic state, cared for by his mother and later his sister, until his death in 1900.
Core Philosophy
God is Dead
The Will to Power
The Übermensch (The Overman)
Eternal Recurrence
1. God is Dead
“God remains dead. And we have killed him.”
This is his most misunderstood statement. He didn’t mean a literal death. He was diagnosing a cultural shift—science and secularism had eroded belief in God, leaving a void in values that would lead to nihilism (life having no inherent meaning).
2. Will to Power
“Life is the will to power…”
Contrary to Darwin’s “will to survive,” Nietzsche argued the primary drive of life is not survival, but the urge to exert energy, overcome obstacles, and expand one’s influence and self-mastery.
3. The Übermensch (The Overman)
The Übermensch is an ideal individual who creates their own values, rejects otherworldly religion, remains faithful to the earth, and lives with intensity and creativity.
4. Eternal Recurrence
One of my favourite ideas of 2025: a thought experiment—
If a demon told you that you had to live your life again and again, exactly the same, for eternity—would you despair or celebrate?
Nietzsche used this to test Amor Fati—love of fate, affirming every moment of life, even suffering.
Major Works
| Book | Year | Key Focus |
|---|---|---|
| The Birth of Tragedy | 1872 | Apollonian (order) vs Dionysian (chaos). |
| The Gay Science | 1882 | First mention of “God is dead” and Eternal Recurrence. |
| Thus Spoke Zarathustra | 1883–85 | Introduces the Übermensch. |
| Beyond Good and Evil | 1886 | Critique of modern philosophy and herd morality. |
| On the Genealogy of Morals | 1887 | Origins of morality and ressentiment. |
This is just the surface. Nietzsche’s contribution can’t be covered in a blog. Next year, after finishing “Beyond Good and Evil,” I’ll write more.
3. Manga — 20th Century Boys
Who reads manga in 2025? Probably what most people will think after seeing the title. I used to think the same until I tried it. Later this year, I came across 20th Century Boys by Naoki Urasawa.
For those who don’t know Urasawa, he is a world-renowned Japanese manga artist, writer, and musician, considered one of Japan’s greatest storytellers. After starting in sports/comedy, he created some of the best psychological thrillers: Monster (1994), Pluto (2003), Billy Bat (2008).
20th Century Boys
The manga began in 1999 and ended in 2007. It is a psychological thriller divided into 24 volumes (~240 chapters).
The story takes place in 1997 and follows Kenji Endo, a failed guitarist who now owns a convenience store. He discovers that a secret cult is committing crimes across Japan using a symbol he and his childhood friends created. They once played a game and wrote the “Book of Prophecy,” imagining the end of the world—crimes, disappearances, aliens, even a virus. The cult is led by a mysterious figure known as Friend, whose identity is unknown.
The plot becomes extremely complex—twists, subplots, multiple characters, and unclear connections that hook you but sometimes feel overwhelming.
Some characters who carry the story: Kenji Endo, Kanna Endo, Otcho, Kiriko Endo, and the enigmatic Friend. These characters have strong philosophical depth and excellent development.
Here are my two favourites:
Kenji Endo
Kenji represents humanism and pragmatic heroism. He is not a superman—he is a failed musician who finds purpose in reclaiming his childhood symbol. For Kenji, the past is moral grounding: the secret base where he and his friends once created the Book of Prophecy becomes a symbolic landmark.
Kenji believes in the “truth” of individual spirit. His music—especially his song Bob Lennon—is a call for people to think for themselves. An anti-herd tool. “Gutlala, sudalala.”
One of the best moments: Kenji’s ethics of survival. Unlike heroic clichés demanding “liberty or death,” Kenji tells his followers:
“If you’re in danger, run like hell.”
This reflects a philosophy of preserving life and humanity over abstract glory.
Friend — The False Messiah
A mysterious figure who hijacks Kenji’s childhood symbol, forms a cult, manipulates people, and sets himself up as a false prophet. Friend is my favourite antagonist in manga so far.
Friend represents nihilism and destructive nostalgia. He is the shadow of the 20th century—someone who cannot move past childhood trauma and makes the world suffer for it. He performs staged miracles and manipulations to control the herd. Philosophically, he aligns with Nietzsche’s critique of “slave morality,” but twisted—he creates a religion with himself as the only god.
Even after reading thousands of pages, the identity of Friend remains confusing—there are multiple “Friends” throughout the story. The core of the character is an identity void. Friend is defined by being forgotten and isolated. His “Will to Power” comes from an inferiority complex; he wants to be seen because he was unseen as a child.
20th Century Boys is a psychological thriller masterclass with childhood nostalgia woven into its heart.
That’s it for this blog. This year was intense. I didn’t get much time to read more books, but I’m looking forward to 2026—hoping it will be prosperous and productive for me and for the readers.
Wishing you all a very happy new year.